The offensive series right after the second Fields' fumble was the killer for the Vikings. The Vikings get handed the ball what, around the Bears 40 yard line and do nothing with the gift. It was a key turnover at a key moment in a key area of the field and the offense ended up with no points out of it.Cliff wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:51 am Dobbs looked awful nearly the whole game. His passes in the first half were slow and off target.
4 turnovers is a loss for basically any team.
The only reason it was even close was the defense. They *finally* broke down a little in the end but how do you fault them after the game they had? This was not a "team loss". The offense play is why they lost.
KOC play calling felt "meh" but I don't really know. Execution was so bad even if I thought it was great how would anyone know?
The second huge missed opportunity was when Addison got wide open deep and Dobbs threw it out of bounds. That was an easy 6 points right there and those plays have to be made, especially given how the offense was otherwise struggling.
Those two situations play out differently and the Vikings are in the win column this morning. Yes, there were a lot of other things that contributed to the loss beyond that, but with better execution in those two situations the Vikings would have won despite those other things. It was poor execution at the start of the season that put them in the early hole, and poor execution now is going to ensure they don't make the playoffs. I don't envy KOC having to now make an honest assessment at the QB position. His team is still technically in the playoff race, so he doesn't want to sell the season. But if he's honest about it, his team has no chance of any playoff success even if it makes the playoffs, so does he put Hall out there to see what he has as a possible future starter at QB? Does he put Mullens out there to see if Mullens can stabilize the offense and reduce the turnovers? Or does he stick with Dobbs who seems to be less effective by the week and hope he can somehow get back on track?
The real shame here is that despite all the injuries and issues early in the season the Vikings had managed to overcome most of them and get themselves back into contention. Then they followed that inspiring mid-season performance with back-to-back, mistake-plagued losses to what probably are the two worst teams in the NFL this year, with both of those losses highlighted by being on national TV.